ROBERT J. LEWIS: OM = THE GREAT ESCAPE @Arts & Opinion

I should have been a pair of ragged claws,
scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
T.S. Eliot

Om. A mystic syllable that is repeated (as in a mantra) by someone who is praying or meditating = oming. An omer (not to be confused with Homer) is one who oms.

A serious omer aspires to the state of satori, or enlightenment, or higher being, or Zen’s no-mind, or oneness with the universe. Whatever we might say about omers, they are not lacking in ambition -- of a different (metaphysical) sort.

Very much related, integral to oming is the emphasis of being in the present. Yoga instruction, meditation centers and Hindu religious retreats (ashrams) are dedicated to teaching initiates to learn how to rediscover and stay in the elusive now where the body, unlike the mind, continuously dwells. The calculus, like Einstein’s famous equation, is simple: mind + body in sync = oneness. Formalized physical postures combined with concentration techniques train the distracted mind to focus on the present. Are we not all reduced to wraiths if when walking in the woods we don’t connect to the sounds, scents and colours in whose midst we find ourselves?

Omers, to facilitate their transmogrification into higher being, are encouraged to disentangle themselves from their especially material attachments, but also emotional dependencies.

According to the script (the founding myth), man fell out of oneness when he separated himself from the world, and since then he’s been comporting himself like a lost character in search of an author.

When the initiate oms, he is expressing a desire whose fulfillment is realized when the sum total of his preoccupations and distractions, however temporarily, cease to exist, at which point the omer can be said to be knocking on the gates of satori. When we hear about a brave someone who regularly performs cold weather meditation (in a T-shirt, cross-legged on a towel, oming in below zero temperatures), we must conclude that he doesn’t feel the cold because he feels at one with the universe, which subsumes the cold.

However, does not the transcendental mind sometimes wonder what life was like prior to oming, before the fall, before the great separation? Since man is excluded from that paradisiacal golden age of pure unmediated being, of oneness, what was there? In short, everything: sun, sky, ground, plants and animals, noting that even the most evolved animal is not separate from the world in which it dwells.

But all that changed, for the worse according to the omers, when “I am” was uttered for the first time in the history of life on earth. At that very first instant of self-consciousness, man simultaneously discovers himself and the world from which he is now separate. So on the one hand (clapping), the metaphysician regards the first “I am” declaration as the most significant event in the evolution of life, while the omer synonymizes that same event with falling out of oneness, with being un-whole, unholy

Is it not man’s distinct privilege from all other forms of life to know himself as separate from the world, and be able to question the meaning and purpose of his life and life in general, as well as meditate on, dwell in the past in order to better deal with events that have not yet happened, that are awaiting him in the future? Being in the world, while at the same time being distinct from the world, decisively allows man to rise to the top of the taxonomic order as the most successful form of life on the planet earth. Why would anyone want to return to the state of consciousness – om-induced mindlessness -- enjoyed by plants and animals?

Is not this mania of wanting to exist in and for the infinite an insult to the gift of neo-cortical consciousness, a denial of one’s fundamental humanity?

From Te-shan: “Only when you have no thing in your mind and no mind in things are you vacant and spiritual, empty and marvelous.”

And closer to the present from Alan Watts: “Zen awareness is attended by the most vivid awareness of nondifference between oneself and the external world.”

And from Peter Mattheissen's masterpiece, The Snow Leopard: "And surely this is the paradise of children, that they are at rest in the present, like grogs or rabbits."

By my shallow reckoning, what is being described above is not enlightenment but an idiot’s joy.

If satori’s endgame is no-mind, one must conclude that human beings are not constitutionally equipped to deal with self-consciousness (being one’s self), which is why every society in the world sanctions drug or alcohol use, or activities that facilitate being in the absolute present. “Zen is a medicine for the ill effects of . . . mental paralysis and anxiety which come from excessive self-consciousness,” counsels Alan Watts. During Brazil’s carnival, people are encouraged to escape from themselves by dressing up as someone else. But no matter what variety of escape is employed, it all reduces to the same theme and variations on om.

Om is the vegetative state raised to the highest eminence, om is lobotomy, om is non-being, om is anti-being, om is dereliction, om is abdication, om is inauthentic, om is dumbness, om is rap, om is Indian drone, om is minimalism, om is drug addiction, om is sports addiction, om is games addiction, om is danger addiction, om is any activity that (by design) keeps you imprisoned in the present where there is no past, no future, no self-consciousness, no judgment. Omers are cowards and like Neitzsche’s Christians and priests, they are the antithesis of life, of the will to power. Om is pure cop-out, and the gurus and Zen masters are the great escape artists; and, taking liberties with the Beatles lyric, yes indeed "living is easy with eyes closed oming all you see." When an evolved omer claims his eyes are open but he doesn’t see because he’s not separate from the world, he has willed himself to occupy the lowest rung on the chain of being, which is a mere syllable away from non-being. Behind every om ever uttered lurks a closet suicide looking to out himself on the end of a rope.

Why would anyone who doesn’t harbour a death wish to transcend duality? I love duality. I love -25 Celsius because it enables me to appreciate + 25. If there were always and only 25 Celsius, the very concept of temperature would disappear, along with the four seasons. Viewed from afar, all human endeavour -- doctrinally frowned upon by the oming fraternity -- implicitly aims at cultivating an appreciation of duality: we work hard to play hard, we travel far to better appreciate what is near.

The difference between metaphysics and the philosophy of oming is that the former encourages us to dwell in the sacred nexus between being and nothingness while the latter is a death wish.

In an ashram, which enforces a monastic code, the genders are separated and the living conditions are primitive. Initiates are obliged to suppress worldly appetites and instincts and accord the highest respect to abstemious teachers for whom celibacy is confused for a virture. But human nature is not so easily bested -- a lesson the unsuspecting (no-minded) idealist is bound to learn the hard way.

A friend of mine recently spent three months doing the ashram circuit in Kerala. Not even a month after separating from his children and vivacious wife, he found himself unable to resist the charms of a goddess in stone.

Clearly there is a pattern here and it is as disturbing as the parallels to be drawn between my friend losing his focus and the fallen priests that have brought the once venerable Catholic church to its ankles. And we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Mount Athos is sarcastically referred to as Mount Assos; os, in French, means bone.

By refusing to grant human nature and duality their due, we increase our peril and perishing. Had my friend’s agitations been videotaped and uploaded onto youtube where it would have gone viral, he probably would not have survived the consequences to himself and his family; and the desecrated statue would have become as famous as Monika Lewinsky’s fecundated blue dress.

“Moderation in all things, especially moderation,” reminds Emerson. Up to a point, and when the occasion calls for it, there is indeed a time and place to be wholly in the present, just as there is much to learn about our unessential attachments and distinguishing between what we think we want and what we really should want. If I am constantly distracted while walking in the woods, then my weak mind might indeed benefit from ashramic discipline.

But let us be clear as it concerns satori and enlightenment. The yearning for oneness, to lose oneself (one’s ego) to the universe is nothing but a cleverly disguised death wish, or in Freud-speak, a yearning to “return to the inanimate.”

And finally, to those tax-exempt religious institutions that would have me leave my wife and unburden myself of my material entanglements, I say this: om-you.

COMMENTS

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I've been questing for the meaning of life and a reason to live it for as long as I've been alive. As an adolescent, teen and adult I sought out and dialogued with rabbis, reverends, priests and pastors, Protestants, Baptists, Evangelists and Sikhs, Mormons, Catholics, Chassidim and Lutherans, born again Christians, born again Jews, Unitarians, Muslims, Atheists and Agnostics, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhists of every stripe . . . the list is long. I wasn't looking for a new religion to join. I wanted to learn about their ideas. Zen, which isn't a religion, and to which I was first exposed in my early teens, brought a lot to the table. It gave me answers and ideas that were heads and shoulders above all the isms and ists I investigated, especially those that claimed there was only one right way to live and that way was their way. Zen, in fact, wasn't and still isn't an ism. In any event that's enough about Zen. Verily I say unto you, Zen is not something one talks about. And even if it was I really don't know much about it. Or about Buddhism.

What led me there was not him – it was the Zen. It was the genuine sincerity and authenticity of the residents I met. It was the meditation. The fraternity. The support. It was the seclusion and retreat from a chaotic society and family that had nothing in common with me and nothing to offer me. It was the seclusion and retreat from a chaotic society and family I had nothing in common with and seemingly nothing to offer. Birds of a feather will flock together and humans aren't any different. Zen and an exodus – many would and did call it desertion – from the madness that was and still is our world made sense to me and provided the berth I needed to forage and follow my path. Looking back on those far-from halcyon days of innocence and idealism, I can say with complete assuredness that no one conned me into joining and no one pressured me into joining. It was all my idea and it seemed like a pretty good one at the time.

There are some who need clear-cut answers for practically everything, for whom the lack of a definitive answer is an absolute non-starter, for whom all phenomena are black-and-white and easily explained. Tempted by and suffering from the need to categorize, label and file, they draw conclusions and construct theories based on whatever data is out there, out of thin air if necessary and then make the evidence fit their conclusions and theories. A verdict follows, case closed or words to that effect are authoritatively spoken and a stentorious gavel is banged on the bench. Once again we are reassured that two plus two is proven to equal four and once again the world has been made safe from those who would rend it asunder. I'm repeatedly stunned anew as speculation after speculation becomes the new truth. And that, my friend, is as true as the world is round. I'm not a speculator and I'll have no truck with bent, warped or forged facts. I'm a card carrying pure laine nobody who'll only write about what he knows, not what he doesn't know. And there's a hell of a lot I don't know. I'm one of those people who can live without answers or explanations to many things. Regrettably, although I've been practising for over a decade, I still have trouble saying three simple words: I don't know. I'm a work in progress that I know will be unfinished when I shed this mortal skein.

from rebble_yell.reddet
Debate is healthy, for sure, but it can be challenging when both participants don't share a common frame of reference.

I was wrong about the transcending duality in dreams, because even though only mind exists in dreams and nothing physical does, happiness and sadness still does exist in dreams, even though these things are self-generated at that point (well, they always are).

So this is an important point -- this duality is within the mind. One who has learned to control the mind at that point only generates the thoughts and feelings they choose to.

In dreamless sleep one is also beyond duality -- there is not even any thoughts of the opposites to disturb the consciousness.

So when the consciousness is not disturbed, one is 'beyond' duality?'

The monk that I know who has reached these states says that our consciousness is like the 'movie screen' that movies are displayed on at movie theaters. He says that we are always watching the "movies" or experiences of our mind, but we are never aware of the screen that these movies are being played on. He says that this 'screen' is blissful consciousness.

So the ordinary mind identifies itself with the movies played on the screen of consciousness, while the yogi identified with the screen of consciousness and is unaffected by whichever movie is currently playing on that screen.

So one can be beyond duality even in ordinary life -- unaffected by the drama that is currently unfolding.

However these things can be largely experiential -- the reason I am a 'believer' is because I have experienced enough of these high states over decades of meditation to know that there is much higher ground than the ordinary material 'sense consciousness' that we walk around in to do our daily duties.

Two people who live in different areas -- for example Alaska and Hawaii would have different experiences and might have different ideas of what is real -- the daily life of each person would seem very fantastical to the other.

So that is my understanding of the realms of Zen and Om compared to the ordinary person going about their day-to-day life. In my experience, the world of 'Om' (for lack of a better word) is like Hawaii while ordinary consciousness can sometimes be as difficult as living in Alaska during the winter.

I totally agree that debate is healthy. However to me there are dimensions of experience that can only be accessed either by psychedelics or deep meditation. Often it is through psychedelics that people learn about higher realities that they then start pursuing through meditation.

I can totally understand your viewpoint that this stuff about Zen and duality and aom is all a bunch of baloney, hocus pocus to fool gullible students and part them with their money and attention.

A person living in Alaska 300 years ago might find tales of life in Hawaii rather fantastical, but an ocean voyager who has visited Hawaii a few times could easily visualize retiring to the beach life on Oahu or Waikiki.

So in my conception, students of Om are like these ocean voyagers from Alaska who have visited 'Hawaii' once or a few times and are trying to learn the 'navigation' skills to be able to return to 'Hawaii' as many times as they want and learn to stay there permanently if they so wish.

So that's my testimony. I appreciate your desire for healthy debate, because there is plenty of 'woo' out there, with people wanting to sell crystals to open your chakras and all kinds other fairy tales to boot. I just wanted to let you know that at least in my experience, there is more to Om and Zen than that.

Which tradition do you follow? Which teachers inspire you? Are you a Sam Harris fan? I don't know much about him but he seems to be the atheist teacher of choice these days.

Not a lot of stuff in meditation can be measured precisely. It's not like you can say 'after 10 hours of doing this you will be at 25.3876 on the consciousness dial'.

Also, the goals you state are misunderstood. You transcend 'duality' every time you go to sleep and have a dream. In a dream all you experience is your mind. You are not experiencing 'duality'.

So transcending 'duality' in that sense is not hard. In every deep state of meditation where you are not attending to your external senses you are transcending 'duality'.

These states are enjoyable and worthwhile, even if you don't hit the highest levels of samadhi or God-realization you can get into wonderful states of bliss and peace.

So yes it's vague, because it's all internal and subjective, but these states are powerful and enjoyable.

Also there is a wonderful sense of healing. These states can be mind-blowing and profoundly transformative.

You don't have to get to the highest levels of merging with everything and all that, although I know people who have gotten there.

One of the monks I know who has gone beyond the ego says that this state is really wonderful, and that letting your ego run your life is a really bad idea. He says 'just look at your ego's track record. You're letting that run your life?'

So some goals are easier to attain than others. But bliss and expansion of consciousness are much easier to attain. But you have to experience it first to understand it.

These are not false promises. This is the whole purpose of these activities.

Without a big goal such as satori or enlightenment, the time spent in these activities would actually be much better off done with something more productive like having sex or making money.

In particular Om is a profound phenomenon that extends beyond merely the physical chanting of it.

The goal of the yogi is to actually listen to this sound in deep meditation and eventually merge his consciousness with it, and use that sound to expand his consciousness.

The actual physical or mental chanting of the sound is just a preparatory practice.

However Om is not a simple physical phenomena, so it can take some time for the aspiring yogi to get to the levels of consciousness where actual perception takes place.

So it's a bit disingenuous for someone who has not experienced the profound power of these practices to criticize them.

It's a little like a deaf person criticizing an aspiring musician practicing scales. We know that this is ridiculous, because we are familiar with the power of music.

For the amazing experiences beyond ordinary physical consciousness, the casual critics can be similarly handicapped as the deaf person if they have not personally experienced these states.

These deep states of meditation can be profoundly healing and transformative.

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The goals you state are misunderstood. You transcend 'duality' every time you go to sleep and have a dream. In a dream all you experience is your mind. You are not experiencing 'duality'.